Playstation Network Weekly Update for America: Free Metal Gear Solid 4 Database software plus more

All you Americans are going to love the Playstation Network weekly update, there is plenty of playable content plus add-on packs to keep you smiling. The main thing that we like and of course sticks out the most has to be the superb free Metal Gear Solid 4 Database software, oh and Fatal Inertia EX release which was yesterday. Check out the full release list below.

Looking for downloadable games are you? Well how about climbing into the cockpit to experience something cool in the brave new world of combat racing, yes we are talking about Fatal Inertia EX which will allow you to battle it out at high speeds using an unconventional array of weapons designed around realistic principles of physics and magnetism (ESRB Rated E10+ File size: 906 MB). Now how about some pretty cool add-on content for some awesome games, first up is Hot Shots Golf: Out Of Bounds Oceania Course, you can download the brand new Oceania course where you will be able to take all your favourite players and caddies of course and tee up on this new stunning designed Oceania course ($4.99 - File size: 100 KB).

Moving on next up is the free Metal Gear Solid 4 Database; there is new information on weapons, characters and plot elements for Metal Gear (1987) to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), there is also three different perspectives, a relationship map, an encyclopedia plus a timeline. (File size: 77 MB). How about The Incredible Hulk Downloadable Content for free, of course you have the epic single player experience, well now there is new Incredible Hulk downloadable bonus content which includes six competitive two-player mission types that test the speed, strength and skill of PS3 gamers everywhere (File size: 381 MB).

This one is a definite must for all you music, Coldplay and Guitar Hero III fans, yes next up is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Coldplay Track Pack. Three pack download containing the songs “Violet Hill”, “Talk”, “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” by Coldplay. (File size: 45.2 MB - $6.25). Rock Band Build your Rock Band library by purchasing these song game tracks. For song credits, visit www.RockBand.com. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream” - Crooked X ($0.99) - “Afterlife” - Avenged Sevenfold ($1.99) - “Critical Acclaim” - Avenged Sevenfold ($1.99) and “Hammerhead” - The Offspring ($1.99) (File sizes: 25.7 MB - 53.2 MB).

There is also free game videos such as the Linger in Shadows Trailer, Linger in Shadows is an interactive coffee table piece created by a collective of artists who call themselves Plastic based in Poland. This experiment into the demo scene brings new talent with a fresh approach to interactive art into the industry. Navigate through various segments and unlock both primary and secondary goals to find the rips in reality. (File size: 68 MB (HD). There is also “PAIN: Character Intro Trailer” Take a look and see the latest downloadable launches. Jarvis introduces a nurse, cheerleader, ninja, pirate, and a punk rocker that are ready to launch into superstardom….or a wall – your call. File size: 23 MB (SD), 83 MB (HD), and 110 MB (1080).

Golden Axe: Beast Rider Teaser Trailer
One of SEGA’s most popular franchises storms onto the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. As the unstoppable Tyris Flare, players will engage in vicious melee combat both on foot and atop massive mythical beasts, savaging enemies with blades and magic on a quest for vengeance –

Watch the Teaser Trailer now!
File size: 12 MB (SD), 44 MB (HD), and 58 MB (1080).

Fatal Inertia EX Titan Trailer
Climb into the cockpit and experience a brave new world of combat racing.
File size: 178 MB (HD). Plus “Prince of Persia Debut Trailer” Download the first trailer and discover the new Prince of Persia! File size: 12 MB (SD), 45 MB (HD), and 75 MB (1080).

Hail to the Chimp ‘Campaign Trail Madness’ Trailer
Take a trip with Crackers and the other candidates as they rally support on the campaign trail!
File size: 73 MB (HD)

Free Game Demos which include, Fatal Inertia EX Trial
Climb into the cockpit and experience a brave new world of combat racing.
ESRB Rated E10+ File size: 542 MB.

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 Demo
one of the most popular arcade shooters is back! Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 revives classic Commando action with an all new adventure. ESRB Rating T File size: 112 MB – There is also “NCAA Football 09 Demo” NCAA Football 09 arrives on campus with groundbreaking college animations and controls and all the excitement of a storied college bowl game. Develop an adrenaline-pumping home field atmosphere and see if you can build your legacy in the online Dynasty mode. ESRB Rated E File size: 1.50 GB.

Hail to the Chimp Demo
Hail to the Chimp is a fast, furious, and funny action-party game where you and up to three friends compete to become the first President of the animal kingdom! ESRB Rated T File size: 374 MB.

PS3 Themes (free)
AST Dew Tour Theme -Customize your PS3 system with a cool AST Dew Tour theme. This theme allows you to change up the look of your background and XMB icons. Download today! File size: 1.69 MB.

Movie and Blu-ray Trailers (free)
Step Brothers (x2)
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, who last teamed in the box-office smash Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, now star in Step Brothers. File size: 30-31 MB (SD), 110-114 MB (HD), and 151-176 MB (1080).

Game Music (free)
PAIN Theme Song
P-A-I-N, P-A-I-N…You’ve heard it while PAIN is loading; now you can download the PAIN theme song and listen to it while you play. File size: 5.10 MB

Source

Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4) helps push Sony Playstation 3 Sales beyond Nintendo Wii

The Playstation 3 (PS3) has beat Nintendo Wii for the 3rd time, all those PS3 gamers will be happy to know that the Sony console has outsold the Wii and this is thanks to the awesome game Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4).

The PS3 has outsold the Wii worldwide for the week of June 7th to June 14th; well this is what VGChartz has reported. To break it down this is basically the 7th time the Sony PS3 was able to outsell the Nintendo Wii in the States, but in Japan this was the 3rd time. We say the mega PS3 console sales is all thanks to the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, and with the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle for example the Wal-Mart deal which features a $100 gift card with the purchase of any PS3, you know that is an amazing deal.

We could put a number of reasons why the Sony PS3 dominated the Wii; want to hear them do you? Well how about these for example: 1) Nintendo Wii shortages, you know hard to get hold of the damn things and this could possibly be why the PS3 dominated. 2) Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle helped the PS3 sales. 3) Sony PS3 is more superior (maybe).

Why do you think the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) dominated the Nintendo Wii in sales for the week of June 7th to June 14th?

Source

Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) features a paedophile website: Warning, Do not look!

Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) the controversial game by Rockstar has been blasted by The Sun because it has revealed that it features a parody of a paedophile website, which is quite sickening really.

The game is controversial in itself but many gamers love this game to bits and play on it for hours on end, The Sun reported that the illegal website little lacysurprisepageant.com was revealed when a cheat was used which allows the main character in the game to have a five-star wanted rating. This report claimed that the fake site will display a message from virtual authorities and that it says “it has been closed down”, there is a warning to anyone caught looking at this website will be investigated and features the warning ‘We see it all, we know it all.”

Someone called Jason Deschoolmeester who is 23 from South Wales said “I was looking on the internet for cheats and the name of this caught my eye as my daughter is called Lacey. This crosses the line. The makers have obviously sat around and discussed putting this in, and it’s not on. What will they do next? “It’s disgusting. It could lead people to indulge in things like that. It is totally sick. I won’t play it again.”

This is quite sickening and this paedophile website address is reportedly one of many fake sites featured within the game, which results in cheats. Do we really need this sort of crap within our games? Rockstar has so far refused to comment on the allegations.

What are your views on this matter?

Source – Digital Spy

Download Mozilla Firefox 3, release date is today: where will this leave Linux users?

Mozilla has finally announced that today is the day for downloading the much anticipated Firefox 3, oh yes June 17th 2008 is a good day for all those that want the new Firefox 3 download. Open source software enthusiasts and developers are planning major parties all over the world to celebrate this brilliant occasion.

Mozilla are trying to get into Guinness World Records, the Firefox team are hoping to set the record for the most software downloads in 24 hours and the total number of unique downloads that take place on release day will be submitted for potential inclusion in the Guinness World Records, it has been said that over one million users have already signed up to pledge their support. So what is the status of Firefox 3 add-on compatibility? Many readers have asked this question, they have also asked that they will not be ready to upgrade their best add-on until the add-ons are supported. Alex Polvi, Mozilla’s Product Manager has written a brief overview that explains the current status of the most popular add-ons. Some of my favorites, like Greasemonkey, Firebug, and Stylish are now all compatible with Firefox 3. Unfortunately, Google Browser Sync is being discontinued and will no longer be supported. Google recommends that users adopt Mozilla Weave or Foxmarks.

Mozilla’s add-on team has been hard at work getting a brand new version of the add-on web site ready in time for the release. The new site now includes a theme browser that displays thumbnails and a new advanced search system, as well as numerous improvements for developers. There are already plans in the works for Firefox 3.1 which has been given the codename of “Shiretoko” (Bless what a nice name), obviously this is in its early stages of development but the schedule indicates that alpha releases could be available as early as July, Prominent user interface features planned for the 3.1 release include tab previews and tag auto-completion. Developers also plan to add several new features to Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine such as the HTML 5 video element and CSS text shadows.

Now we want to know “where will this leave Linux users? Many people know that most users of Linux distributions do not get their Firefox browser directly from Mozilla. Instead, they get Firefox packages through their Linux distributions. The Linux version of Firefox which are sometimes customized by the distribution’s creator, also do not have the “Check for Updates” button enabled in the browser — while the button is enabled on Windows editions. The issue most recently came to the forefront after both Red Hat Fedora and Ubuntu shipped their recent Linux versions with Firefox 3 Beta 5. When the browser’s later Release Candidates 1 (RC1) and Release Candidate 2 (RC2) versions came out, users of the both popular distributions did not immediately get update notifications like their Windows counterparts.

So as said where will this leave Linux users and will they get Firefox at the same time as Windows users?

Visit the Mozilla Firefox 3 download page here

AMD FireStream 9250 Processor at Teraflop level: Offers gaming rig additional 5 Teraflops of Power

AMD is gaining a lot of respect it seems when it comes to the it’s second generation FireStream 9250, the second-gen FireStream 9250 has just topped the single-precision teraflop barrier at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany, which is fantastic news to most.

The processor will now take full advantage of AMD’s GPU knowledge to augment the processing power of your loving rig’s CPU with an additional 8-gigaflops per watt of processing from this 150 watt processor, this is a 55x performance rise, when obviously compared to crunching financial analysis code, for example, on a CPU alone. The AMD FireStream 9250 processor will fit into a single PCI slot and will include double-precision floating point hardware performing at more than 200 gigaflops. The all new processor and supporting SDK are due for release in Q3 for $999.

Just so you know it has been said that the 9250 features ATI’s upcoming RV770 GPU at its core and that the foundation of future 4800-series graphics cards. In basic terms this all means 4x cards setup in Crossfire X should indeed be capable of offering your next gaming rig an additional 5 Teraflops or power. Read the full press release below for more information.

Official Press Release:

—Next-generation AMD FireStream™ 9250 processor accelerates scientific and engineering calculations, efficiently delivering supercomputer performance at up to eight gigaflops-per-watt —

At the International Supercomputing Conference, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today introduced its next-generation stream processor, the AMD FireStream™ 9250, specifically designed to accelerate critical algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC), mainstream and consumer applications. Leveraging the GPU design expertise of AMD’s Graphics Product Group, AMD FireStream 9250 breaks the one teraflop barrier for single precision performance. It occupies a single PCI slot, for unmatched density and with power consumption of less than 150 watts; the AMD FireStream 9250 delivers an unprecedented rate of performance per watt efficiency with up to eight gigaflops per watt.

Customers can leverage AMD’s latest FireStream offering to run critical workloads such as financial analysis or seismic processing dramatically faster than with CPU alone, helping them to address more complex problems and achieve faster results. For example, developers are reporting up to a 55x performance increase on financial analysis codes as compared to processing on the CPU alone, which supports their efforts to make better and faster decisions.1 additionally, the use of flexible GPU technology rather than custom accelerators assists those creating application-specific systems to enhance and maintain their solutions easily.

The AMD FireStream 9250 stream processor includes a second-generation double-precision floating point hardware implementation delivering more than 200 gigaflops, building on the capabilities of the earlier AMD FireStream™ 9170, the industry’s first GP-GPU with double-precision floating point support. The AMD FireStream 9250’s compact size makes it ideal for small 1U servers as well as most desktop systems, workstations, and larger servers and it features 1GB of GDDR3 memory, enabling developers to handle large, complex problems.

Driving broad consumer adoption with open systems
AMD enables development of the FireStream family of processors with its AMD Stream SDK, designed to help developers create accelerated applications for AMD FireStream, ATI FireGL™ and ATI Radeon™ GPUs. AMD takes an open-systems approach to its stream computing development environment to ensure that developers can access and build on the tools at any level. AMD offers published interfaces for its high-level language API, intermediate language, and instruction set architecture; and the AMD Stream SDK’s Brook+ front-end is available as open source code.

In keeping with its open systems philosophy, AMD has also joined the Khronos Compute Working Group. This working group’s goals include developing industry standards for data parallel programming and working with proposed specifications like OpenCL. The OpenCL specification can help provide developers with an easy path to development across multiple platforms.

“An open industry standard programming specification will help drive broad-based support for stream computing technology in mainstream applications,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD. “We believe that OpenCL is a step in the right direction and we fully support this effort. AMD intends to ensure that the AMD Stream SDK rapidly evolves to comply with open industry standards as they emerge.”

Accelerating industry adoption
The growth of the stream computing market has accelerated over the past few years with Fortune 1000 companies, leading software developers and academic institutions utilizing stream technology to achieve tremendous performance gains across a variety of applications.

“Stream computing is increasingly important for mainstream and consumer applications and is no longer limited to just the academic or engineering industries. Today we are truly seeing a fundamental shift in emerging system architectures,” said Jon Peddie, president, Jon Peddie Research. “As the industry’s only provider of both high-performance discrete GPUs and x86-compatible CPUs, AMD is uniquely well-suited to developing these architectures.”

AMD customers, including ACCIT, Centre de Physique de Particules de Marseille, Neurala and Telanetix are using the AMD Stream SDK and current AMD FireStream, ATI FireGL or ATI Radeon boards to achieve dramatic performance gains on critical algorithms in HPC, workstation and consumer applications. Currently, Neurala reports that it is achieving 10-200x speedups over the CPU alone on biologically inspired neural models, applicable to finance, image processing and other applications.2
AMD is also working closely with world class application and solution providers to ensure customers can achieve optimum performance results. Stream computing application and solution providers include CAPS entreprise, Mercury Computer Systems, RapidMind, RogueWave and VizExperts. Mercury Computer Systems provides high-performance computing systems and software designed for complex image, sensor, and signal processing applications. Its algorithm team reports that it has achieved 174 GFLOPS performance for large 1D complex single-precision floating point FFTs on the AMD FireStream 9250.3

Pricing and availability
AMD plans to deliver the FireStream 9250 and the supporting SDK in Q3 2008 at an MSRP of $999 USD. AMD FireStream 9170, the industry’s first double-precision floating point stream processor, is currently available for purchase and is competitively priced at $1,999 USD. For more information about AMD FireStream 9250 or AMD FireStream 9170 or AMD’s complete line of stream computing solutions, please visit http://www.amd.com/stream.

All Apple Store’s Down: 3G iPhone and other products maybe

This has got to be some interesting news, right now all international Apple Store’s have gone down and first we looked at the United States and UK Apple stores and they were fine. Then heading to Australia and other international stores showed them down with the standard “back soon” image.

Now while I am in the middle of reporting this news, the US and UK Apple stores have also gone down. Its not often we see all the Apple Stores around the world go down unless something big was about to happen.

With the Worldwide Developers Conference 2008 (WWDC) happening today, and we are just hours away from the keynote speech…it does not take much to guess what’s about to happen. Get ready people for some new products and this could also include the 3G iPhone?

The rolling outage seems to be affecting all stores around the world now, well all the ones we have checked.

Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Empower Consumers to Take Charge of Their Health

OAKLAND, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — June 9, 2008 — Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Corp. today announced that the two companies will pilot health data transfers between Kaiser Permanente’s My Health Manager and the Microsoft HealthVault consumer health platform. Pairing two leaders in online health innovation, this pilot program is expected to unveil new strategies for expanding consumer access to online health information and management tools.

The pilot program will extend the functionality of the successful Kaiser Permanente personal health record, My Health Manager. Already, My Health Manager’s more than 2 million users have convenient and easy online access to clinical information and health management tools, including e-mailing your doctor, online prescription refills and appointment scheduling. Connecting My Health Manager to the HealthVault platform will allow users to combine personal health information from Kaiser Permanente and a wide range of health and wellness management applications and devices such as blood pressure monitors.

“Providing new ways to manage their health online is one more way we can engage consumers in their care,” said Anna-Lisa Silvestre, vice president of Online Services at Kaiser Permanente. “We believe that Microsoft HealthVault will be a valuable supplement to our expanding set of online features.”

“We’re very pleased to work with Kaiser to deliver innovative online health services focused on improving the quality of care and the health and wellness of individuals and families,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group. “As the universe of online health applications continues to grow, people will learn how technology can empower them and their trusted providers to make the most informed decisions about their health and care.”

HealthVault is designed to support Kaiser Permanente’s transfer of My Health Manager data in adherence with federal standards and includes advanced safeguards to help protect members’ personal information. HealthVault is built on the principle that people should have a copy of their own health information, have control over it and have the ability to privately share information with whomever they choose in a security-enhanced environment. In consultation with consumer privacy experts, Microsoft developed and implemented industry-leading health privacy commitments and stringent privacy principles for health technology providers connecting with HealthVault.

HealthVault automatically imports and exports using standards that are meaningful in the healthcare industry, such as WC3 eXtensible Markup Language (XML), HL7 Continuity of Care Document (CCD), ASTM Continuity of Care Record (CCR.), Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and Common Connectivity Device.

A distinction between Kaiser Permanente’s online health tool and others offered by insurers is the range and relevance of the information itself: In addition to containing benefits and eligibility information, My Health Manager also is powered by both clinical data entered by physicians, going much deeper than the standard claims-based PHRs on the market. For example, consumers can not only see a record of a test that they had, but also the result of that test and, in some cases, direct feedback from their doctors about the result. Since both the patient and physician use the data in My Health Manager, consumers are actively using their Kaiser Permanente PHR to communicate with their physician and support their health goals.

Kaiser Permanente’s 156,000 employees will be eligible to participate in the pilot program announced today. Participation in the employee pilot is voluntary and is designed to help ensure that the functionality allows easy access to individual personal health information, as well as enhancing the ability to manage that data. If the pilot is successful, the program will be expanded to include Kaiser Permanente’s more than 8 million members.
Source: Press Release

Surfing Costs Business £10.6bn a Year

The average office worker in the UK spends an hour and a half a week of work time surfing the web for personal use, according to research by the CBI.

The findings showed that this is costing the economy £10.6bn a year and while many organisations are supportive of staff visiting non-work related websites, and view it as a motivational perk or a modern-day tea break, others are troubled by the amount of use, or have had to sack staff for serious abuse.

CBI South East Regional Director Malcolm Hyde said: “Employers understand that the Internet has become a part of everyday life and are prepared to be flexible. Many firms feel that, as long as the job gets done, there is no problem with staff surfing for personal use.

“While an hour and a half a week may sound like a lot, it is not always wasted time. Productivity and morale can increase when firms trust staff to use the web sensibly to catch up with friends on Facebook, pay household bills, or search for a cheap flight.

“However, £10.6bn a year is a significant sum and this is an issue that firms need to be aware of. It can become a problem where staff are spending excessive amounts of time online, are downloading porn or software, or are putting the organisation’s reputation at risk.”

The survey of 503 organisations across the country, which together employ over one million workers, revealed that nearly two-thirds (60%) of employers think staff regularly use office time outside of lunch hours and formal breaks to look at non-work sites, like those involving social networking, web email, shopping and holidays.

Employers across the public and private sectors estimate that 4.4% of working time is lost in this way, which accounts to 95 minutes a week, or ten days a year, at an average annual cost of £939 per employee.

Mr Hyde added: “Nobody wants to behave like Big Brother and there is no epidemic of misuse, but there needs to be a bit of give-and-take from all parties. Employers need to decide for themselves what level of non-work surfing is acceptable and then set out clear boundaries.”

Over half of organisations (54%) restrict Internet access at work, although the extent of that control can vary widely. 14% deny access altogether, while a quarter (25%) have no limits on access. The remaining 7% are considering imposing limits on web use.

Organisations, both private and public sector, with 200-499 employees, suspected the highest proportion of working time lost to leisure-surfing (5%), while the lowest rate (2.7%) was reported by those with 5,000 or more staff. This may be because larger firms have clearer usage policies or have installed IT systems that regulate web usage.

A third of respondents (32%) disciplined an employee for Internet misuse during 2007, while 13% took action to dismiss an employee for persistent misuse.
Source: Maxim PR

Apple’s share price affected by worldwide developer conference (WWDC)

The world of Apple could change in a lot of ways today, not only with the launch of new software and products around the Apple iPhone 2, but also with Apple’s share price.

The WorldWide Developer Conference is known to bring us interesting news every year but the WWDC also brings change to the path of Apple and their products. Not only will the 3G iPhone have an affect on the Apple share price, but also the many other yet-to-be-known announcements and launches. While it’s unpredictable what will happen with the price of shares, its surly got to be good news.

Analysts are trying to predict what products and services will be launched today and also what affect they will have on the shares. Today could see Apple release a new form factor for multi-touch devices at WWDC; this would see Apple’s entrance into the future of mobile Internet devices. The MID market will be massive and Apple is sure to want many devices launched in this area.

Pocket Lint reported a rumor today that Apple will show 4-inch and 7-inch touchscreen devices that are a cross between an iPod touch and a Mac, these devices are also said to be passed the prototype stage.

Whatever happens today, it would be a good guess that owners of Apple shares will do well from today’s announcements, but then the world of business is never straightforward. Do you own Apple shares and if so, are you expecting the share price to increase today?

Amazon Outage: Why it went down?

The web has been going crazy with the news that amazon.com has been down, the outage seemed to only last around an hour and both the UK and US domains seem to be working fine now. What we heard was customers of Amazon’s UK Web site took advantage of a pricing error and this included getting a 44-disc set of hit US drama West Wing for just under £18.

Some Amazon customers reported that surge in traffic caused the site to slow down considerably, amazing for a massive brand like Amazon, but I guess we all have our limits.

Krunker reported “Uh oh.. Is something wrong over at Amazon? The site has been suffering outages for the last 40+ minutes or so. If you go to www.amazon.com right now, you’ll probably see a “http/1.1 Service Unavailable” message like the one above. Hmm.. what’s going on Amazon?”.

We also heard from tmcnet.com about the Amazon downtime, they said the UK’s Daily Express reported this “For two hours, the entertainment giant was advertising massive discounts on several DVD box sets including a 44-disc set of hit US drama West Wing for just £17.97. Amazon customers who were lucky enough to stumble across the amazing offers went into a buying frenzy, snapping up multiple purchases of West Wing, Family Guy, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives and Will and Grace”.

Looks like Amazons sales are going to be up today, did you get any good deals?

Intel’s Chandrasekher, Mobile Internet Devices Take Computex Stage

At Computex in Taipei yesterday, Anand Chandrasekher, senior VP and GM of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group detailed the progress that Intel, its customers and the industry are making in bringing Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to market. Building on the Intel® Atom™ Processor launch at Shanghai IDF, Peter Chen, general manager, BenQ Technology Product Center, and Masatsugu Shinozaki, executive vice president and general manager, Car Information System Division, Hitachi, Ltd., discussed how the companies are working to bring new entertainment and information experiences to market through their respective upcoming Mobile Internet Devices.

Chandrasekher also highlighted a support from a range of software vendors around the world, including a new collaboration with Wind River Systems through development of an open, extensible Moblin-based Linux platform for MIDs.

Visit Intel here and here for additional details on Chandrasekher’s keynote and Intel’s presence at Computex.

Movies from major film studios now on Apple iTunes Store in Canada

If you use Apple iTunes in Canada, then you will be happy to know that you can now get movies from major film studios. This news broke yesterday, check out the press release below for the full details of what Canada users will get.

CUPERTINO, California—June 4, 2008—Apple® today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate and Maple Pictures are now available on the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in Canada features over 1,200 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including recent blockbusters such as “Juno,” “I Am Legend,” “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Cloverfield.” iTunes Movie Rentals also features over 200 titles available in stunning high definition, perfect for viewing on a widescreen TV with Apple TV®.

“Canadians have made iTunes the most popular place to find and buy music and TV shows online,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re thrilled to give iTunes customers access to over 1,200 movies from major studios to rent or purchase, whether to enjoy at home on their widescreen TV with Apple TV or on-the-go on their iPod.”

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting directory, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod®, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

With iTunes Movie Rentals, once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to iTunes or Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it—or watch it multiple times.

Digital Revolution: More Power, or More Powerless? The New Generation Arts Festival

The Digital Revolution: More Power, or More Powerless? - will be the question posed at The Big Debate at the Birmingham ICC, part of the New Generation Arts Festival (organised by Birmingham City University). A panel of distinguished media experts, leading social commentators and a live audience will explore the explosions in social networking, exciting virtual worlds, online gaming and the dot.com boom, and consider their combined implications for the future of the arts.

Chairing the debate will be Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology Correspondent for BBC News, who has covered everything from the emergence of search engine Google and the dot-com crash Read more

Nestles Skinny Cow products are the best life diet for slimming and weight loss

Have you heard of skinny cow? Well Skinny Cow products from Nestles are hot at the moment and the reason for this is because you can indulge in what looks like to be bad fatty food, but indeed it is not as they are pure healthy products.

Skinny Cow products are for those who have the ultimate sweet tooth and these products are favored by dieters, these are without a doubt very good as part of the best life diet for slimming and weight loss. The latest product from Skinny Cow is “Skinny Dippers which is a new ice cream bar. These Skinny Dippers are ice cream bars which at the end of them are covered in chocolate (basically dipped in chocolate hence the name “Dippers”), you may be thinking of all those calories and fat content but you need not worry because one bar of ice cream only contains 80 calories and 3 grams of fat, they have many other products.

The good thing about Skinny Cow that we really love is the fact that these products can help not only adults but our children, our kids are growing fast and we do not mean just in height either, we are talking about how large they are getting. Children are becoming overweight and this is a major concern. Kids love these ice creams and they are a good source to start their diet, they will not even know the difference between the normal fatty factor ice cream and these slimming wonder products.
Skinny Dippers have 2 grams of fiber and are only 1 Weight Watchers POINT. They come in caramel and mint flavors. Obviously Skinny Cow as more products so we recommend you go visit Skinny Cow.

http://www.skinnycow.com/

Subsidiary of U.S. military security contractors buy 314 B1 Super Tucano Fighter Plane

Blackwater Worldwide who are a subsidiary of U.S. military security contractors have just purchased the 314 B1 Super Tucano Fighter Plane from the Brazilian aviation company Embraer. The 314 B1 Super Tucano propeller-driven fighter plane was bought for $4.5 million and delivered to EP Aviation at the end of February.

EP Aviation has apparently got 33 planes and helicopters registered with the FAA, obviously officials with Brazil’s government and Embraer declined to comment on the Estado report and apparently according to the source below phones calls were not returned. Apparently after reading on the internet the company called Blackwater Worldwide are infamous for its allegations of its killings in Iraq. Let us tell you more about the 314 B1 Super Tucano Fighter Plane.

The 314 B1 Super Tucano is black and grey and is propeller driven which if you look closely looks pretty similar to that of the World-War 2 fighter plane, the Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano which is also named ALX or A-29 is a turboprop aircraft designed for light attack, counter insurgency (COIN) and pilot training missions. It incorporates highly modern avionics and weapons systems which we have listed below. At the moment it is being used by the air forces of Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic and now Blackwater Worldwide has it.

The armament is as follows, 2x 12.7 mm FN Herstal M3P machine guns, 1x 20 mm cannon pod below the fuselage, 4x 70 mm rocket launcher pods, Conventional and intelligent bombs, 2x AIM-9 Sidewinder or MAA-1 Piranha or Python 3/4 air-to-air missiles and External stores on 5 hardpoints. The maximum speed is 593 km/h (320 knots, 368 mph).

Source – USA Today

Breaking Apple iPhone News: Movistar is official carrier for Spain, what model will they launch?

Apple is determined little puppies to spread the Apple iPhone across the world and we know that they will no doubt dominate the mobile phone industry. The latest breaking Apple iPhone news is that Apple has just snapped up another carrier.

Movistar has just been announced as the official partner for Spain, as usual we have no launch dates so you will have to sit back and wait patiently. We have seen the website which you can see by clicking the source link below. We have seen this however – “Tiene un formulario de registro al cual puedes accesar con tu cuenta de correo y número de móvil, con el cual ellos te avisarán cuando se anuncie la fecha oficial de lanzamiento, which means if my Spanish is up to scratch “Have a registration form to which you can access your mail account and mobile phone number, which they warn you when you announce the official launch date, and also “Esta es la primera vez que se ven relacionados de una manera official”, which means “This is the first time who are related in one way official.
Apparently it had already been reffered to the union Movistar + Apple ErneX, so Movistar is ready for iPhone microsite. Is this good news for those who live in Spain? Of course it is, what we would like to know is what model they will launch.

Source - www.iphone.movistar.es/index2.html

First ever Blu-Ray record Divertimenti released is Norwegian? Trondheimsolistene the Trondheim soloists

The latest news in the way of Blu-ray is that of Norwegian record label 2L releasing the first ever in the world a Blu-Ray record, oh and it’s Norwegian. “Divertimenti” is a milestone in many ways and it’s the 50th record release which marks the 20th anniversary of the Trondheim soloist whose concert in Selbu Church is captured on “Divertimenti.”

It is a label that is always at the forefront technologically, 2L (Linberg Lyd) found the occasion right to make “Divertimenti” a milestone also in format. Moving onto the Blu-ray technology, it makes use of five separate sound tracks which are complex indeed with a mixture of complex recording and mixing process which as been condition by very sophisticated equipment, 2L has cooperated with equipment manufacturers and the record now available is the fruit of a combined effort opening up new vistas of sound rendition. This is something special that is nothing you have ever heard before.

You will hear that each instrument has been clearly positioned which creates a multidimensional listening experience of stunning clarity and obviously with many not having the proper equipment to play Blu-ray discs you will never hear the clarity, this new release also includes a SACD disc, playable on all standard CD players and computers. Trondheimsolistene known as the Trondheim soloists is said to be one or the finest orchestras in Norway and under the leadership of Øyvind Gimse they have developed something special into an ensemble of international renown, and undertaken successful tours all over Europe, in America, Japan and Brazil.

The repertoire on “Divertimenti” is as follows: Bejamnin Britten: Simple Symphony,
Grazyna Bacewicz: Concerto for string orchestra, Terje Bjørklund: Carmina and Béla Bartók: Divertimento for strings.

You can see the PDF file here

Source

Comcast homepage and webmail Hackers did warn company: Hijackers are Defiant & EBK

We have an update for you about Comcast, yesterday we reported the news “Comcast Email Hacked: Webmail security issues, comcast.net site is back up” (See Here), well today we want to let you know that the Comcast hijackers did indeed warn the company. We know that these computer hackers took down Comcast’s webmail and homepage service for around about five hours on Thursday and they said they did not know what they were getting themselves into.

The hackers known as “Defiant” and “EBK” are indeed in serious trouble and “Defiant” whose first name is James said he wished he was a minor because this is going to be really bad, James is 19. The hackers are members of an underground group called Kryogeniks, neither hacker would give their full names or their locations but what we have found out via a source is that Defiant’s MySpace profile lists him in Cashville, Tennessee, but obviously he says this is not correct, his girlfriend lists herself as being in New York. The attack began on Tuesday according to the hackers and the two hijackers used a combination of social engineering and a technical hack to get into Comcast’s domain management console at Network Solutions, they did not give out technical details of their technique but did say it was relied on a flaw at the Virginia-based domain registrar.

Once the hackers were in they had control of over 200 domain names which are owned by Comcast, the hackers changed the contact info for one of them from Comcast.net, to Defiant’s e-mail address and for the street address they used the “Dildo Room” at “69 Dick Tard Lane.” Comcast however did say they noticed the administrative transfer and wrested back control, which forced the hackers to repeat the exploitation to regain ownership of the domain and then the hackers contacted Comcast’s original technical contact at his home number to tell him what they’d done. So as you see they did warn them. When the hackers called Comcast the manager scoffed at their claim and this is when he hung up on them, EBK who is 18 then took even more harsh action and redirected the Comcast site’s traffic to servers under their control, the funny thing is “Apparently” Comcast would not confirm nor deny they warning phone call.

Apparently EBK the hacker said “”If he wasn’t such a prick, he could have avoided all of that,” says EBK. “I wasn’t even really thinking. Plus, I’m just so mad at Comcast. I’m tired of their shitty service.” The defacement message was short and simple: “KRYOGENICS Defiant and EBK RoXed Comcast,” it read. “sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

Obviously and of course is now more apparent, Defiant and EBK do not like Comcast.

Yesterday when we reported this news to you we had a comment sent in by Charlie Douglas at Comcast saying “Charlie from Comcast here — last night users attempting to access Comcast.net were temporarily redirected to another site by an unauthorized person. While that issue has been resolved and customers have continued to have access to the Internet and email through services like Outlook, some customers are currently not able to access Comcast.net or Webmail. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers, and network engineers are working to resolve the issue.
We believe that our registration information at the vendor that registers the Comcast.net domain address was altered, which redirected the site, and is the root cause of today’s continued issues as well. We have alerted law enforcement authorities and are working in conjunction with them.”

What are your views on this?

Source

Comcast Email Hacked: Webmail security issues, comcast.net site is back up

It seems the importance of using a very strong password for emails is a must because the hacking of Comcast email service shows security issues. Many users do not understand obviously how important it can be, even though internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast using some of the most advanced email security solutions, wonders never cease to amaze because hackers can and will get through.

I have visited www.comcast.net this morning and it seems the site is down with a message on the homepage saying This Site Is Under Construction and Coming Soon but thankfully it is back up and running again, oops so no chance for you to go to Comcast net sign in to login. We all when going to a service like Comcast and other email providers that they use cutting edge email security appliances, but the whole truth of the matter is that much of the Web’s infrastructure is hacked together legacy equipment. In simple terms it is fair to say users should protect themselves from having their online identity compromised, the bottom line is that users should change their passwords frequently and then maybe this hacking problem may ease a little.

Let me say now that anyone using this service that has had the same password for some time now should really consider changing it, the current problems with Comcast web email security solutions proves that it’s vital for us to protect ourselves with effective online caution. Word of warning for those wanting to change passwords, DO NOT use birthdates, pet names or even family names, USE mixed up letters and numbers even down to using uppercase and lowercase characters. I would recommend you changing passwords once a month to be on the safe side,

You should be changing passwords weekly, but even security freaks don’t do it that often. Once or twice each month is really not sufficient, but it’s a lot better than nothing. It’s a simple email security solution that will help you avoid the problems that Comcast email users are having right now.

www.comcast.net is all up and running again.

Video of Microsoft revealing Windows 7 at D6: The scoop shows multi-touch support

We are all up for Windows 7 and when Microsoft showed off a snippet of it working we fell in love because the scoop is it reveals multi-touch support. Steve Ballmer and mastermind Bill Gates was on stage at D6 talking all about Microsoft.

The company have not said much and are of course being “coy” about Microsoft Windows 7, some have said that some people have blamed chit chat early on in Vista development for saddling the operating system with too high of expectations which makes things difficult for developers. Ballmer is a lovely man because he was good enough to show off the smallest snippet as they call it of Windows 7, the main thing that stands out here is the fact it reveals multi-touch support which is fantastic and of course something I would love to play with. The demo was running on a Dell Latitude XT tablet notebook and apparently Microsoft is working the whole interface with multi-touch experience in mind.

Expect Windows 7 in late 2009 or early 2010 which for us is too far away, we would love to buy it now as it seems something we would love to use everyday, well that of course if it works good. To me Windows Vista is a pile of crap and has gone back to XP. Maybe I am old fashion but I need something that stands out and with Windows 7 featuring multi-touch support which is great.

Source